First Days
by HorridGuest
Summary: A set of short stories set in the vein of First Day. The opening day for Sword Art Online seen through the POV of other characters that had appeared in the series.
1. Diabel (1)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Diabel

* * *

November 6th, 2022, Sunday. Two months ago, the beta test ended and I had left this world behind. The world of «Sword Art Online» and the floating castle «Aincrad». Though I've changed since the beta, the «Starting City» hasn't changed a bit.

Or so I first thought. As I looked around and saw all the other players, I realized that it wasn't the same as it was before. The amount of people milling about made it a real city, it wasn't just a safe zone to hold players inside anymore.

After taking a deep breath, I ran towards the nearest weapon shop. I barely managed to reach the shop's counter when somebody suddenly called out to me.

Turning around, I saw a red haired man trying to flag me down. I thought it might have been an NPC, but the lack of an [NPC] above his head indicated otherwise. Perhaps it was a player that recognized me from the beta test? I changed both my avatar's name and appearance since then, so it wasn't a likely case. Curious, I decided to stop and hear him out.

"Hey, you look like you know what you're doing! Help a poor guy out, would ya?" He clasped his hands together as he pleaded.

I had no idea who he was, and I didn't particularly want to waste my time helping a stranger, so I ignored him and continued to run to a different shop instead. He didn't seem to take it badly, a quick glance behind saw him begging another player for help.

When I arrived at the next closest equipment vendor, the shop keeper suddenly called out to me. "Welcome, young man! I see you're off to an adventure?"

Just like older games, the NPCs would say short phrases, but they could also respond. It was possible to raise favor with NPCs if you visited them often and responded to them. Nodding my head, I answered with a short "Yes".

Nodding back in response, the old keeper continued with an unexpected pattern. "Here, take this sword with you, free of charge! You're my first customer, so I felt like giving you a gift. Just be sure to buy something else!"

When I was in the beta, such moments of fortune never came my way. Gratefully accepting the sword, I noticed it was also far better than the other swords in the store. Considering that, I waited to see if a question mark would appear above the shop keeper's head, indicating the start of a quest. A few minutes passed, nothing else out of the ordinary occurred.

I quickly bought a buckler to go with the sword, and when I finally made it past the north gate, I noticed there weren't many people out there. Perhaps they were standing awestruck as I once did, busily immersing themselves in Aincrad's full glory. Or maybe they were talking to all the beautiful 'girls' - in comparison to the beta there were far more female PCs, but the perfection of their appearances was just as unnerving as before.

Either way, there were multiple gates in and out of the city, so the lack of other people could easily be explained as having gone out of a different one.

You could run around absentmindedly in the grass lands just outside of the gate, the main mob - despite their name, «Frenzy Boar» was rather tame and wouldn't attack if you didn't target it. Even so, I watched another player getting gored by one of the blue boars, though they probably weren't a beta tester like me. The overeager player seemed to have forgotten to buy any weapons, and I chuckled as the player scrambled away on all fours.

At I ran further towards the edge of the grass lands, more threatening mobs appeared. There were all sorts of large bug-type monsters, but the most threatening of the mobs were the wolves. Unless your level was high enough they would always attack on sight, but they also had extremely low HP. A single «Sword Skill» could instantly kill one, as long as you hit their weakspot, their open mouths when they lunged at you.

As I split a wolf in half with a «Horizontal», I noticed that one of the drops was a blue hair dye. As far as the first floor went, it was a fairly rare item.

"Seems like I'm quite lucky today..." Smiling widely, I continued on towards a specific destination: the location of the quest which gave the «Anneal Blade» as a reward.

I didn't particularly like the Anneal Blade. I found it quite uncomfortable to use. But it sold at a high price, and the experience given from the quest wasn't too bad either.

With that in mind, I picked up pace, eager to get to today's target - Horunka village.

* * *

**Notes: Now with a shamelessly copy pasted transition.**


	2. Kibaou (1)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Kibaou

* * *

November 6th, 2022, Sunday. The day of the official release of «Sword Art Online». I didn't manage to get into the beta test two months ago. That was fine, I didn't mind waiting another two months, however...

"Kibaou... Kibaou... Tch." Testing out the name, it didn't sound as good as I'd have hoped.

I couldn't get the name I was planning on using, the system said it was already in use. Probably one of those damn beta testers. "So damn frustratin."

Maybe if I can find a name change, then I'll force them to switch names with me. Nothing like that's against the rules. Probably.

But for now... I think I'll try to figure out how to play this game. I tried to log in as quickly as possible to reserve my name, but it didn't work out.

_Guess I'll log out and reread that old school instruction manual. What kind of MMORPG doesn't have an in-game tutorial these days, seriously?_

Trying to pull down the menu with my right hand, it didn't work. Trying again and again, it still didn't work.

"What the hell? This some sort of bug?"

Tried it with the left hand, still didn't work. _Is this happening to just me, or what?_

I ran to the nearest person, who happened to be a beautiful woman. Not like there was any shortage of them. "Hey, there's something wrong with my menu. Is there a problem with yours too?"

She tilted her head in confusion. "I don't think so." I watched closely as she held the index and middle fingers of their right hand together and pulled downwards.

_So it was like that..._ Mimicking the correct motion, I pulled down my own menu.

"So what seems to be the problem?"

"Right, right, the problem. Eh, look there's something wrong here..." Fumbling about with the menu, I tried to look for something unusual.

"Right there, at the bottom. It looks like there's a missing option." It was true. The bottommost selection was a pointless panel, it obviously should have held something but was entirely blank.

"What do you mean?"

"Look, let me see your menu for a bit..." I walked behind the woman and peered over her shoulder. The interface was the exact same as mine, but the name in the center was obviously different.

_Speaking of which, why the hell is so much of the game in English? We're in Japan, so why couldn't Argus use some damn Japanese? _"...How do you pronounce that, Linda? Anyway, just scroll down to the bottom there." I grabbed her hand and pulled the menu towards the bottom.

After shaking off my hand, she took a good look at the missing panel. "You're right. The log out button used to be here, but it seems to be gone now. Maybe they just relocated it..."

Even so, the log out option was missing. We poked and prodded the menu, but there was no sign of it. The two of us ended up looking for others that shared our problem.

* * *

**Notes: I really need to flesh these out some more, they feel more like the rough drafts of a story.**


	3. Coper (1)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Coper

* * *

November something, 2022, Sunday. With «Sword Art Online»'s official release today, you'd expect me to know what the exact date was. After all, this was a game I spent quite a while playing, during the beta. But I'm never able to remember the exact details of things, so just knowing that its a Sunday is good enough for me.

This time around, I had chosen a female avatar. It wasn't for any dirty reasons - well, none of _those_ dirty reasons_ - _but after the beta, I learned that a female avatar came with certain perks. It wasn't an overt stat gain, or anything like that.

"Hey!" I walked over to a girl standing idly about. "You look like you're new to the game, would you like some help?"

What I gained was an undeserved trustworthiness from female players. Perhaps everyone else also realized it in the beta - no, there's far too many for them to be all from the beta - but there's really a ridiculous amount of female players in the crowd...

...Anyway, it seemed like the random player wasn't a beta tester. Considering she hadn't even equipped a weapon, it was more likely that she was a total newbie. Coming to that conclusion, I decided I should play with her for a bit.

About half an hour later, I was laughing my guts out while sitting against a tree. The «Hiding» skill really was useful after all. I remembered once more, crawling away on all fours, the player I invited with me eventually escaped from one of those starting mob boars.

Wiping a mirthful tear from my eye, I pulled out my sword. I decided I should check if my own skills had gotten rusty. These non-humanoid monsters weren't good enough of an indicator, and I didn't want to go all the way back to practice on those dummies in town.

I decided to attack the next player that came by. The moment I decided that, somebody immediately came walking past the gates. Fortunately or unfortunately for me, it seems like they were another newbie, I couldn't see any weapons on them.

There was no point in using my hiding skill to attack another player on the relatively open field, so I just rushed in. When I was in range, my body went into the stance for a «Slant» -

I was lying on the ground, with a knife pointed at my face. The other player was surprisingly skilled. Was he another beta tester? He didn't even use any «Sword Skills» though.

He slowly eased off, and stood a safe distance away. The action gave me the impression that he was some sort of respectful fighter, so I didn't expect him to say: "Isn't PKing fun?"

I really was confused, but we seemed to share a common interest. I introduced myself as «Coper», and he introduced himself as «PoH». He said he was new to SAO, so I ended up teaching him a bit about the system, mainly points related to PKing. Eventually our talk turned a bit morbid, but I couldn't find myself stopping the conversation.

There was something that drew me towards him, and the man was fun to talk with.

* * *

**Notes: I've realized there's a lack of real world identities, at all.  
**


	4. Heathcliff (1)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Heathcliff

* * *

The day, the month, the year, I've already forgotten such things. But a period of work where every day blended seamlessly into the next, had finally ended. The one thing that I knew for sure was that «Sword Art Online» had finally been released.

I was the first person to log in to the world of «Aincrad». I decided to sit down in the middle of the plaza, as hundreds and thousands of players began to stream into the server.

Watching them run by with animated faces, watching them idle in stunned amazement. With ten thousand players filling this city, this world, a small part of me asks: _Isn't this much already enough? There's still other things to improve on, a trained eye could easily tell this isn't the real world. The water physics need work and the production skills, especially cooking...  
_

But such doubtful thoughts were pointless. It was already too late for me to to stop. I, along with some unfortunate others, had already entered the point of no return. As I watched my timer counting down, the number of players dropped once more, ever so slightly.

_More than anything else, I simply cannot wait much longer._

* * *

**Notes: Short chapter. For ten thousand players, there really isn't that much material to work off of without OC. Guess I might start the Death Game soon.  
**


	5. Keita (1)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Keita

* * *

Tomorrow would be just another day of school, but today was the release of «Sword Art Online». I had some homework that I should have been working on, but I ended up logging on to SAO anyway. I made a promise to my friends, after all.

When I first logged in, I couldn't believe that I was inside of a game. It all looked so real, felt so real, that I had momentarily forgot everything I had planned.

Suddenly, somebody tapped my shoulder. Shaken out of my trance, I turned around to see another player smiling at me.

It was a stranger, probably. Well, even if it were one of my friends, I wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at them.

"Yo," the stranger clasped his hand on my shoulder. "Is that you Ryoutarou?"

I wouldn't be able to tell, but this guy certainly thought he could. "Er, the name is «Keita»."

"So the name «Klein» was taken after all? You could have just changed up the spelling and made it «Cline», or was that taken as well?"

He was so adamantly mistaking me for somebody else, I was rather surprised. "I-I think there's a bit of a mix-up here. Does the name Toshiyuki sound familiar to you?"

"Toshi... Oh. Haha, my bad. I never expected another person to..." He broke off a bit with some more laughter. "...Sorry about that mix up, Keita. Anyway, my name's «Dynamm». "

He asked if I was new to SAO, just like he was. When I answered yes, he asked if I wanted to help explore the starting town for a bit. I needed to find a meeting place with my friends later, so I agreed.

We talked for a while, mainly about weapon choices and guilds. Just like me, it seemed like he was going to form a small guild with the people he knew IRL.

Looking at the in-game clock, it was about time to meet up with the others. Coincidentally, it seemed like he was going to do the same. We said our goodbyes, and I left for the inn.

If I recall from the manual, you logged back in the same spot you logged out. After reaching the inn that I decided to use as the meeting spot, I opened my menu and reached for the log out button.

* * *

**Notes: I'll probably use their voice actor's names in place of unrevealed real names, assuming they were voiced.  
**


	6. Johnny Black (1)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Johnny Black

* * *

Ahh- That's right, already that time, isn't it? The launch for «Sword Art Online». None of the other software so far for the Nerve Gear has been any real fun.

Disappointing, really, really disappointing.

Well, I'm not expecting much out of this either. But there's no point in waiting any longer.

"«Link Start!»"

Rushing through the boring character creation, I only double checked on the gender. No way am I playing as some little girl, never, I really don't get those guys that do.

"Hey~! The cute girl over there, wanna party together?"

Dozens of female players turned around, and after a quick random pick, I randomly walked over to one. "Wanna play together?"

I couldn't tell if it they were just looking for someone to leech off, or if they actually wanted to play together. Doesn't really matter though, they came with me, just as I wanted. Then I wondered if it was actually a girl, but really, it doesn't really matter.

"-And what's your name?"

Did she introduce herself already? Totally wasn't paying attention, Colbert, Covert, Corvats, something like that?

"Johnny Black, just call me Johnny!"

We walked outside the gate, when I suddenly remembered to equip my weapon, can't hunt without a weapon after all. Remembering the other parts of the manual, I prepared for the hunt.

Oh, if we actually formed a party, I could check the name, right? Too much work for something so pointless.

We encountered a boar, and Cobert suddenly rushed to attack it first.

Hm... If I activate a Sword Skill and just happen to hit her while trying to hit the boar, what happens? Let's see!

"Ah, let's go with, «Horizontal»?" Getting it in one go, the system accelerated my body forward. While targeting the boar, the girl should be in position-

"Ah." It suddenly stopped. The glowing sword pretty much bounced off her body, and she ran back from the boar to glare at me.

"What are you doing? Can't you be more careful? That was mean!" Colvat stomped her feet, acting like a stereotypical little girl.

"That was an accident, an accident! Here, let me do it properly!" This time, targeting the girl properly, I let out another «Horizontal». Striking her dead on, she stumbled back quite a bit.

"So now my cursor should have changed colors, right? Hey, what color is it now?"

Trying to let out another «Horizontal», but it failed. Did I mess up? Or was it the cooldown? Ah, whatever. While Cobat was still disoriented, I simply hacked at her until she turned blue and exploded.

When she started fighting back, it was a little troublesome, but still- This feeling, its the best! The look on her face, the sensation and thrill, perhaps this «Sword Art Online» is better than expected.

"Sorry for the wait," I turned to the boar from earlier, and let out a proper «Horizontal». Watching it shatter, I didn't feel the excitement as I did earlier.

Guess I'll head back to town and find another one.

* * *

**Notes: Too much like Coper's start, maybe. Thought of Liz meeting with XaXa, since XaXa mentioned weapon creation in GGO. Perhaps Thinker and Argo, they're both information dealers.  
**


	7. Heathcliff (2)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Heathcliff

* * *

As time went on, most of the players left the central plaza for other destinations. Having decided to relocate myself, I ended up wandering into a nearby «Inn».

There were quite a few people inside, they came and went checking the various prices and accommodations. The stream of people slowly thinned into a trickle, and once again, there were no players left to observe.

Only once so far did another player speak to me, and they had confused me for an NPC within the building._ By the end of this all, what will they have thought of me? Monster rather than a man, an enemy mob rather than another player?_

Thinking back to the variety of players I saw, I wondered. _Just how many of those players were the serious gamers that had toiled for a copy?_

Around half the ten thousand copies of «Sword Art Online» had been distributed as prizes and gifts in order to broaden the market. Due to the nature of the events, it was likely that most of the recipients would be unfamiliar with such games. _Perhaps I feel guilty about limiting their chances..._

I tried not to think about it, but such idle thoughts could not stop me from wondering for long. I once again looked at the time. There was still half an hour to go, but the number of players had already reached the possible limit.

With all ten thousand slots taken, the number of players could only drop from here on.

Over two hundred players had already lost their chance, and it was likely a couple more would before it truly began.

_Yes, there really is no reason "to wait any longer."_ I could feel an uncontrollable smile coming on, I was about to find my answer.

_«Do Sword Art Online Official Tutorial?»_

_«Yes»_

* * *

**Notes: Did color cursors disappear in all buildings, or was it just restaurants?**


	8. Kibaou (2)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Kibaou

* * *

Me and Linda found a bunch of others who couldn't log out while we walked around. It wasn't just every odd person, it was every person. _Seriously, these kinds of problems shouldn't be happening anymore. The hell were these guys doing in the beta test, huh? Just tweaking the graphics all day?  
_

The dozens of us sent messages to the «GM», but there wasn't any reply or anything. Eventually, we decided to go and find them ourselves.

If the administration wouldn't come to us, then we'll have to go to them, cause if we can't log out, then they probably can't either.

We went from something like a party to a raid to a parade to an army. There must have been hundreds of us, easy. _But_ w_hen we get our hands on those lazy bastards, what can we do to them?_

They weren't the only side with lazy bastards, after a while my army thinned back out to a party.

Only ten or so of us were still going strong, me, Linda, a couple of know-it-alls, I think one of thems the admin for MMOToday, some flirting bastards that think they're on a picnic, and some annoying brats that won't shut up.

"...Tch! Oi, you damn Argus bastards! When the hell are you going to do something about this?"

A blue light began to envelop me. "The hell's this supposed to be, some sort of swear filter?" Before I knew it, it looked like I got teleported somewhere.

Looking around, I can see the rest of them still standing there. _They just moved me five meters to the left? Why the hell?_

They began to teleport as well, I could see them popping up in random places. Not just them, hundreds of people began to pop in from nowhere.

«System Announcement».

System Announcement.

_So they're finally doing something about the problem, huh? About time._

* * *

**Notes: About time.  
**


	9. Johnny Black (2)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Johnny Black

* * *

Geez. I've hunted this many and they still haven't caught on? Why are these people so stupid? Have they never played an MMORPG before?

Too easy, hunting them one by one, its just way too easy. Maybe I'll change targets, maybe they aren't so dumb on the other side of town.

"Eh? What's that, what's going on?" There's some sort of parade marching through the town. Is this some sort of «Event»?

Maybe this will be fun?

I tagged along at the back, and asked around. Seems like a bunch of annoying flirty couples hang around this side, and they didn't know what was going on. Moving ahead, I finally got some info, they were trying to find a GM or something, so they could fix some sort of glitch.

Are they a bunch of idiots? That isn't going to do anything, really, these people have never played any kind of online game before? What a waste of time. My time.

"You have fun with that, then." I began to walk away, but one of them suddenly asked me a question.

"Wait, why is your color cursor orange?" She pointed above my head.

Speaking about that, didn't the manual say city guards were supposed to attack me on sight? I recall walking back in from the gates, seeing those guards, they didn't even look at me. Was that some sort of glitch? The glitch they're going to go bug a GM about?

"Hey, aren't you going to answer me?"

Oh, I ended up ignoring someone again. Well, since there's no point in staying around here, guess I'll start hunting again. "Ah, this orange thing? It's a special status buff, want me to show you how I got it? Just follow me, we need to exit the city." I grabbed her hand and began to pull her away from the crowd.

"Wait a moment, Lady Rosalia. This man seems slightly suspicious in my eyes. I shall accompany you." Holding on to her other hand, some guy was being all defensive-like.

"Oh, Sir Kuradeel, I'm sure there's nothing to be afraid of. But if anything does, I'll count on you to protect me."

...Gross. Nauseating. Sick. I feel like throwing up in my mouth, gross. That kind of role-playing is just awful to watch. And that's probably another guy, you know? If you want to find a girl, why don't you just go find an online dating service?

Anyway, two-on-one, can I handle it? Well, she'll probably let Mr. WhiteKnight alone to defend herself. If things go badly, she'll probably run, then I can just chase her down. Should be fun, I can feel the excitement building up.

"Alright, you can come too, the more the merrier!"

I ended up giving them a fake name, and we didn't form a party, so it should be fine. Once we were a good distance from the city, I suddenly spun around and attacked Mr. WhiteKnight. Chaining «Uppercut» to «Vertical», a big chunk of his life came off, and he flew back a bit.

Rather than a look of confusion, it looks like he was expecting this. "Kh, as I had expected. Lady Rosalia, please stand back! I can handle this ruffi-"

Really gross. He blocked the attack with his own weapon. Surprisingly, it seems like he's better than the other idiots from before. Should I be happy or annoyed?

With the surprise attack at the start, I had a clear advantage, and I gained quite a bit of experience from the earlier hunts. He was almost dead now, so I looked around for Rose. Did she already run...?!

"You bi-" Unexpectedly, she moved to attack me from behind. While I was caught off guard, the other guy began to attack, and I couldn't defend properly. In moments, my health hit zero, and «You Are Dead» showed up on my screen.

Dammit, dammit, dammit!

In a ghostly state, I watched as they congratulated each other. Ah, I really wish I could just stab them like this, a spirit's revenge. Ugh. When I respawn, I'm going to rush out there and kill them, slowly.

The world went from grey to black, and I ended up respawning... Or not? The world was still grey, but I was in a different area. According to the manual, this should be the «Room of the Resurrected» in the Black Iron Castle. But I was still dead though.

"What's this, another glitch? Really?" Looking around, I saw some hundreds of dead players, or not-respawned players, whatever. "Hey, how long have you been here?"

"Hm? Oh, another new one. Eh, probably... a couple hours now? I pretty much died when the game started. And I can't even log off..." He fiddled with his menu.

But what? Can't log off? I opened my own menu to look for the log out button. There was nothing there. Is it because I'm dead, the game doesn't let you log out unless you're alive? Or was it never there to begin with, what is this crap?

Really, with all these bugs and glitches, I'm really starting to regret buying this game.

I heard a sound behind me, the arrival of another player? Turning around, Mr. WhiteKnight stood before me. Did I end up killing him? I don't recall having any DoT effects, I don't recall any nearby monsters either.

"Oh, if it isn't Mr. WhiteKnight? Dead already, then, did I properly kill you after all?"

But he wouldn't answer me. Though his face was kind of red.

"You know, I don't remember any monsters around, and I don't really remember killing you. So how did you die? Hey?"

He began to slowly walk away.

"That's pretty rude, you know, walking away when someone's in the middle of talking to you. As a killer, you should show some more courtesy to the killed, when you're pretending to be a knight. Why so quiet? Did you get killed by your girlfriend?"

He stopped in his tracks. "Oh, did I hit the mark? That Rose girl actually killed you afterwards?" He turned around, his face was pretty red.

"I...!" He turned back again, and began to walk away. I looked behind me, and saw Rose behind me.

Ku. Kuhahhahaha!

So I really was right after all?

Chasing after that Cradil, I began to pester him some more.

"Oh man, you're the best. Really, kuhuh, getting killed by that, how does it, feel, ha, being a knight? What, did you do? Kiss her, or something, hah, kuhuahahaha!"

But before I got a response, a blue ring surrounded him, and he disappeared. What?

A bunch of other dead people began disappearing as well, were they being logged out? Guess I'll find out, since it happened to me as well.

I was standing in a plaza, but I was still dead, obviously not logged out then. But there were a bunch of live players there as well.

In the skies, a bunch of system messages were being displayed.

* * *

**Notes: There's probably going to be three parts for each.  
**


	10. Diabel (2)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Diabel

* * *

It was some time before I had realized it: I had ran in the wrong direction. When I went out of my way to avoid that newbie, I ended up exiting Starting City from the opposite direction I had intended.

Though there might be a quest in this direction, I could recall that there wasn't anything of the sort during the beta test. Weighing the options in my head, I came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be worth the effort to look for a likely non-existent quest, and would be better off trying to get the Anneal Blade.

I had to return to the city.

With a disappointed sigh, I began to hunt my way back to the beginning.

When I once again neared the northern gate, I could see some other people. There were three players, two of which were actively fighting each other. I thought it was a friendly duel at the start, but focusing my vision on the color cursors above revealed one of them as «Orange». In other words, a criminal player.

Though it seemed like the orange player had his opponent on the ropes, it seemed like the third player began to take action, she entered a stance and began to slowly circle around to the orange player's back. With a two-on-one attack, I didn't expect the criminal player to stand a chance, but...

I noticed one more nearby player «Hiding». Yet another female player was intently watching the fight. I thought she might have been like me, a bystander that stumbled upon the duel, but the way she was gripping her sword handle indicated that she was about to jump in at any moment.

If that fourth player was with the two greens, why would she need to hide? It likely that she was with the orange player, and that this was an ambush. I thought about getting involved for a moment, but decided that it wasn't worth the risk. There's no need to get myself killed for some people I don't know.

So I carefully left the two-on-one, no, two-on-two fight, and made my way past the gate without attracting their attention.

When I entered the city, what greeted me was quite unexpected. A parade made up entirely of hundreds of players marched through the town. What was going on?

But even through the shifting masses, a familiar face caught my attention.

"Argo?" The bright red rat-like whiskers stood out quite well among the other faces. I ended up running towards her, relieved to find that I didn't make a mistake. If I wanted to know what was going on here, this would probably be the best place to start.

"Mm? Do I know you?" I expected her to remember me quite easily with her memory, before recalling that I made for a fresh start with the official release of SAO.

"Ah, I was one of the testers. Anyway, what's going on here?"

"Oh? If you were one of the testers, you should know that my information doesn't come freely."

"Come now, I could just ask one of the hundreds of people around." I found myself already complaining at her notoriously stingy nature.

"Yes, but most of these people don't even know what they're doing here. They're just caught up in the mob, hoping for something fun. 500 col for the info. Of course, you're free to ask around."

True enough, the players around had no idea what was going on, and the ones that claimed to, had rather conflicting stories. I ended up bargaining with the rat, and found myself paying with 100 col and my player info as a tester.

It was some sort of player protest led by a player named Kibaou. There was a problem with the in-game menu that prevented anyone from logging out. I was quite surprised to find that on myself, and even more surprised that Argo didn't have any information regarding forced log outs from inside.

"I suppose it can't be helped. This seems rather like a waste of time though, you're really going to stick around?"

Argo just nodded her head and waved, and I found myself standing around the evergrowing marching band.

This time, I paid proper attention to the gate I was exiting. Once again I saw some players hunting as I ran by, though it seemed like these guys were the most normal pair I'd encountered so far. Though they looked somewhat familiar...

Ah. One of them was the redheaded newbie I had ignored at the start. The other...

That's right. It was from some time further back. When I thought about it a bit more, I remembered him quite vividly from the beta test, one «Last Attack» I had on a floor boss was sniped by him. And his name was...

"Oi, Kirito!" The loud redhead player gave me the answer. Kirito. Taking that name to heart, I decided that I would get revenge in someway later on.

But for now, I put that thought away, and focused on acquiring that Anneal Blade.

After a while, I arrived in Horunka Village, and quickly activated the «Secret Medicine of the Forest» quest. I began hunting the key item, «Little Nepent's Ovule». Almost immediately, I had my chance, but it was a mixed blessing. The one that spawned was not the «one with the flower», but the «one with the seed». I could risk fighting it, but if I died and had to respawn, I wouldn't expect the quest to still be open.

Playing it safe, I ended up waiting for the safer target.

After a couple dozen «Little Nepents» were killed, the target finally spawned and with little problem, also killed. I picked up the key item off the floor, already rushing back to the village. If I was too slow, the durability would drop to zero resulting in my hard work being wasted.

Unluckily for me, it seemed like the administration finally decided to do something about the bug. I found myself forcibly moved back to «Starting City's» main plaza.

All I felt at the moment was regret, if only I was faster, if only I hadn't hesitated. I could have cleared the quest.

* * *

**Notes: Next is probably Coper, then Keita.  
**


	11. Coper (2)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Coper

* * *

In between our conversations, PoH would go back to town in order to draw out some more players to PK. Using this strategy of «Green Bait», we could safely bypass the guards at the city gates while I continued to get practice as an orange player.

I asked if PoH hadn't gotten bored and wanted to PK some players himself, that there were ways to deal with the orange cursor afterwards. I'm not sure if he just didn't want to risk it as a proper «Criminal», but he seemed oddly satisfied with merely watching me.

He left once more to pick up some players, but he'd been in there for an abnormally long time. I wondered if some respawned players might have caught him, or if there were simply no more players milling around that gate.

Should I risk going inside? He doesn't seem to be responding to the PMs I sent. Maybe he just logged out?

After waiting for some time, I decided I should look for some way to get back into the city. I think there were some lightly guarded - or completely unguarded - gates on the other side...

Circling around, I think I might have found such a gate rather quickly. There was an orange player blatantly walking out of the gates, with two green players in tow.

I decided to hide myself, in case they decided to attack me. If I recall correctly, one of the ways to fix my «Karma» was attacking other orange players...

Well, _damn_. Good thing PoH didn't end up becoming a criminal player, because I can't actually remember how to deal with this.

Let's see, there's waiting out a prison sentence, breaking out of prison... wait, that one doesn't actually fix the root of the problem...

There had been some clashing noises going on for a bit. When I looked, it turns out the trio was fighting with each other. I guess there were using a similar «Green Bait» strategy, but the remaining green player suddenly attacked the orange. With the two of them combined, the criminal player didn't stand a chance, and he quickly shattered.

If I thought it was a bad idea to talk with them before, then it was definitely an even worse one now. But after a while, in a completely unexpected move, one of the green players randomly attacked the other. The other managed to put up a brief fight, but he was still injured from the earlier battle, and was also killed.

The remaining player's cursor was now dyed orange. When I saw that, I decided that I should kill the remaining player to try and fix my karma. I quickly broke my «Hiding», and tried to ambush her.

Once again, I initiated with a trusty «Slant». I successfully caught her by surprise, her reaction was rather slow. Another fortunate point was that she hadn't healed up from the previous fight, so she ended up just like her ex-companion.

Checking on my color cursor, the hunt evidently wasn't enough to help. My cursor was still a vibrant orange.

For now, I guess I can enter from that gate they left from. I stepped inside and the BGM changed to the one of Starting City's for a second, when I suddenly jumped back, changing it back to the field's.

I guess the guards aren't stationary like the ones in the beta, because there were some standing just around the inner side of the gate.

I'll just have to keep circling until I find a safe entrance.

There really weren't a lot of people outside though. Checking the server stats, pretty much every one of the ten thousand players should have already logged in.

I was getting rather bored of circling around and avoiding any players I came across. I thought about just fighting the next player I came across. Unfortunately for me, the next player I came across was in a pair.

One of them seemed like a newbie, just trying to practice using Sword Skills. The other seemed to be coaching them in how to do it properly, another beta tester?

Hunting newbies was getting a bit boring, so perhaps I should try requesting a formal duel with that other one? He might just double team me with his friend on seeing my color cursor though.

Whatever, I made up my mind and began to walk towards them, when they suddenly teleported.

I ran over there to check it out. How was it possible? They shouldn't have any access to teleportation crystals this early in the game.

I soon found out how.

* * *

**Notes: I'll need to fix up some of these timeframes, not to mention the whole rough draftiness.**


	12. Keita (2)

Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara.

None of these characters belong to me.

* * *

First Days

Keita

* * *

Weird. I can't find the log out button, the menu is pretty confusing to navigate. I spent a couple more minutes looking for the button before giving up.

I guess I'll ask someone for help, though its kind of embarrassing. Maybe the NPCs have a help function? But inside of buildings, it seems like the NPC indicator is removed.

I saw somebody sitting quietly in the corner, hardly moving, never speaking. That was probably an NPC, right? You don't join a MMO to sit alone and do nothing, after all. "Er. You're an NPC right? Where's the log out button?"

It turned to stare at me, and after a moment of soundlessly waiting, turned away. I guess the NPCs don't have a help function after all.

"Hahaha! Talking to an NPC? Outside of quest info and idle chat, they probably don't have any programmed responses."

I turned around to see someone laughing at me. Since he already saw me asking, I might as well ask him.

"Excuse me, do you know where-"

"Godfree."

"Huh?"

"That's my name, kid. Godfree, call me Godfree."

"Er, right. Godfree, do you know where the log out button is?"

He gave me a funny look before opening up his menu. He scrolled around with it a bit, before closing it again. "I have no idea. Guess we're stuck in here!" He gave another short laugh before walking away.

...Was that a joke? I opened up my menu and looked for the button once more.

Of course, I still couldn't find it.

I ended up asking a couple more people, there were plenty around. It seems like the log out button really was missing.

That wasn't good. I really needed to log out so I could use the washroom. Would the NerveGear force me to «Link Out» at a certain point? I've never come across such a situation before.

There was a commotion outside, most of the other people left the inn to check it. Since there was nothing I could do about my problem, I decided to just wait for my friends to show up.

Using the information from MMO Today's beta information, we decided on this place to meet up in SAO. There was another meeting place in case this inn was removed or displaced from the beta, but it turns out that wasn't necessary.

Since player names weren't actively visible in-game, we ended up deciding on certain appearances to identify each other. I ended up going for a largely red appearance, with an eye-catching bandanna.

There wasn't anything to do while waiting. The only people that were left were talking amongst themselves, and the NPCs couldn't hold an actual conversation. I wish I could have at least opened my homework and worked on it from here while waiting.

In the end, nobody came. Only me and the NPCs were left behind in the inn. Maybe they couldn't log in because of the bug? I got up from the table and moved towards the door.

I close my eyes and sigh as I stepped out the door, when somebody in front of me suddenly spoke.

"Toshiyuki?"

I quickly tried opening my eyes, but whoever was in front of me disappeared. No, it was me that disappeared, or teleported. I looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, there were hundreds of people being teleported into the area. In the sky, there were large flashing messages plastered all over.

"Hey, Toshiyuki! That is you, isn't it?" I turned towards the unfamiliar voice.

* * *

**Notes: Upcoming order is probably Diabel, Kibaou, Johnny, Keita, Heathcliff, with Coper last.**


End file.
